


Steps

by WrathoftheStag



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Character Study, Falling In Love, Ficlet, Growth, M/M, Self-Doubt, Zimbits Ficlet, coach zed, jack in the hospital is mentioned, zimbits - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 10:18:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21336628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrathoftheStag/pseuds/WrathoftheStag
Summary: Nineteen-year-old Jack Zimmermann, alone in his hospital bed, would have never believed this moment.A little Jack Zimmermann character study leading up to episode 4.16.
Relationships: Eric "Bitty" Bittle/Jack Zimmermann
Comments: 29
Kudos: 280





	Steps

**Author's Note:**

> For all the folks that were interested in [a little zimbits angst](https://wrathofthestag.tumblr.com/post/188767919424/anyone-interested-in-some-zimbits-angstbut-with-a) with a happy ending.

It was at night that the weight of everything he did would come crashing down on him. Nineteen-year-old Jack would look out the window and his vision would blur with tears brimming in his eyes. Just about ready to fall. He’d wipe them away angrily before he’d give them a chance to run.

The nights were always the worst. It was too quiet and at the same time, too loud. _Stupid. Idiot. How could you throw it all away? What did you do?_ The voice in his head who spoke the language of possibilities was always the harshest; way harsher than anything Papa might have told him, anything that Kent could have said.

“We’ll take this one step at a time, okay?” Papa had said earlier that day as he stared at Jack’s hospital bracelet. “Together.”

The pitter-patter of the staff walking down the hallways would finally lull him to sleep at two, three in the morning as the shadows from the tree branches outside would dance above his head, singing their song of sorrow…

**+++**

“Coach Zed,” Charlie had started to ask, “do you think--”

“Every day,” Jack chirped as the two worked putting the equipment away after practice.

“No, I mean. Do you think I can go all the way?”

“Hockey?” Jack said as he paused.

“Yeah, the NHL,” Charlie asked, a bright smile full of heavy metal.

Jack’s mouth quirked gently. Papa had prodded Jack to take the coaching position, and while Jack had been hesitant, he soon grew to love the time spent with his group of rowdy kids.

“You gotta work hard, man. Here, pass me that bucket.”

Charlie nodded and replied happily, “Just like you!” 

Jack frowned. “No, not like me. Better.”

“Better? But you’re one of the best, Coach Zed. No one is better than you!”

Jack appreciated the enthusiasm—he really did—but felt he had failed Charlie, and the rest of the team, if that’s what he really thought.

**+++**

“I swear, the memories you’ll build here, Jacky,” Maman said with a smile as she pulled into a parking spot in front of the dorm. “This will be some of the best years of your life.”

Jack was skeptical, to say the least. 

He was already older than most incoming freshmen. Who could he possibly connect with? And the second they’d find out who he was, it was over. He had contemplated registering as Jack Reeves—forgoing the Zimmermann name altogether. He didn’t want to be Bad Bob’s son, he wanted to just be Jack. He wanted to get on the ice and play. Class and hockey, that’s all he would focus on for the next four years. What else could there possibly be? When he brought it up to Maman, Jack hadn’t realized Papa was in the hallway and had heard.

The look on Papa’s face was one he hadn’t seen in a few years. So Jack _Zimmermann_ registered for Samwell University.

“Are you meeting the team later tonight?”

“Euh, yeah… the coaches are ordering pizza for us, or something, at Faber.”

Alicia nervously gripped the steering wheel, then looked at Jack.

“Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“One may walk over the highest mountain, one step at a time, baby.”

Alicia smiled as her gaze swept across Jack’s face, and suddenly Jack was terrified of letting her down. Her of all people… His mother who had stood by him since day one. If it made her happy, he’d give Samwell—all of Samwell—an honest chance.

“Are we still on for breakfast tomorrow?” Jack asked softly.

“Yes! I’m taking you to Jerry’s. They have the best brunch on campus, just wait,” Alicia replied.

**+++**

He looked through his camera lens and focused on Bittle’s laughing face. Nursey tickled him as he sat, half his body inside the hockey bag.

“I told you he could fit inside it!” Holster yelled out.

“Y’all are the absolute worst!” Bittle laughed and began to step out of the bag.

He looked at Jack and pointed a finger. “And you, mister. Don’t you even think about documenting this.”

Jack took a quick snapshot and smiled. “Me? Never.”

“Scoundrel,” Bitty muttered then smiled at Jack.

Jack felt his stomach flip. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but made a note to himself to try and find out later.

**+++**

The first time Jack Zimmermann sleeps with Eric Bittle, he feels safe. He feels as though they’ve known each for a million lifetimes. Like they were always meant to be, in this life and all others.

Nestling in Bitty’s arms, his head on Bitty’s chest, Jack’s eyes flutter shut as Bitty strokes his hair and hums happily. Bitty’s hums reverberate in his ear beneath him. 

Jack feels a peace he’s never felt before… not on the ice, not back at Montreal, not anywhere he can think of with anyone he can think of, ever. 

And it is at this moment that Jack is 110% sure that he is in love with Eric Richard Bittle. Though it will still take him several weeks to say so, Jack feels it deep in his heart, right down to his bones. It’s all at once overwhelming and the greatest thing ever.

He looks out the window and sees the sun dip down into the horizon as it makes the room glow.

Bitty’s heartbeat sings in Jack’s head.

“What are you thinking about, sweetpea?” Bitty asks softly, bathed in gold.

Jack decides that he will take whatever steps necessary to always have Bitty in his life. Now that Jack feels so loved and cherished, he can never let it go. Never. Bitty is everything, and everything is Bitty. How did he get so lucky?

“Nothing,” Jack replies with a smile and wraps his arms tightly around Bitty’s waist.

He closes his eyes once again as Bitty sighs contentedly.

In this life, and all others...

**+++**

The holiday music downstairs could be heard in Bitty’s second-floor bedroom. Jack was just happy they had this semi-quiet moment alone. He’d spent so much time being social, meeting Bittle after Bittle, followed by a cluster of Phelps. Jack was thoroughly done, and all he wanted was to sit with Bitty and be still.

Jack listened to Bitty fret about his post-graduation plans and then Jack, being who he was around Bitty, simply said what he was thinking.

“And after this year, we can finally live together.” 

But why stop there?

“And, you know whatever steps come after that,” he added after a beat. 

They’d discuss the future, in a peripheral way, of course, they had—but this was the first time Jack had been so direct about it. Direct, even though he knew this was the path he wanted for them ever since he handed Bitty his OYO toy so early in their relationship.

“I want steps after that,” Bitty said steadfastly.

There was no fear, just utter certainty from both of them.

“Yeah, me too.”

A long engagement seemed doable, as long as Jack knew they’d be together forever. Nineteen-year-old Jack Zimmermann, alone in his hospital bed, would have never believed this moment.

Sure, Jack was a Stanley Cup champion, but everything else that he now had in his life was worth ten cups.

“If you don't finish that essay, you can't graduate--Mr, Bittle.”

And the sound of Bitty’s laughter was the language of possibilities, full of promise and love, in this life, and all others.

**Author's Note:**

> All OMGCP characters by Ngozi Ukazu.
> 
> Come and say [hello on Tumblr](https://wrathofthestag.tumblr.com/post/188863522819/steps), and reblog if you like. :)


End file.
